The present invention relates generally to the field of catheter systems for performing therapeutic procedures and in particular, to a catheter procedure system and method for navigating a guide wire.
Vascular disease, and in particular cardiovascular disease, may be treated in a variety of ways. Surgery, such as cardiac bypass surgery, is one method for treating cardiovascular disease. However, under certain circumstances, vascular disease may be treated with a catheter based intervention procedure, such as angioplasty. Catheter based intervention procedures are generally considered less invasive than some other types of procedures. If a patient shows symptoms indicative of cardiovascular disease, an image of the patient's heart may be taken to aid in the diagnosis of the patient's disease and to determine an appropriate course of treatment. For certain disease types, such as atherosclerosis, the image of the patient's heart may show a lesion that is blocking one or more coronary arteries. Following the diagnostic procedure, the patient may undergo a catheter based intervention procedure. During one type of intervention procedure, a guide wire is inserted into a blood vessel in the patient's body. The guide wire is then advanced to the desired location, most commonly in one of the heart vessels or elsewhere in the vascular system. A catheter is then slid over the guide wire and moved through the patient's arterial system until the catheter reaches the site of the lesion. In some procedures, the catheter is equipped with a balloon or a stent that when deployed at the site of a lesion allows for increased blood flow through the portion of the coronary artery that is affected by the lesion. In addition to cardiovascular disease, other diseases (e.g., hypertension, etc.) may be treated using catheterization procedures.
For manual insertion of a guide wire, the physician applies torque and axial push force on the proximal end of a guide wire to effect tip direction and axial advancement at the distal end. Robotic catheter systems have been developed that may be used to aid a physician in performing a catheterization procedure such as a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The physician uses a robotic system to precisely steer a coronary guide wire and balloon/stent device in order to, for example, widen an obstructed artery. In order to perform PCI, the distal tip of a guide wire must be navigated through coronary anatomy past a target lesion. While observing the coronary anatomy using fluoroscopy, the physician manipulates the proximal end of the guide wire in order to direct the distal tip into the appropriate vessels toward the lesion and avoid advancing into side branches. Due to the limitations of fluoroscopy, poor visualization, a lack of depth perception and compliance of the anatomy and the guide wire, it can be difficult to rotate the proximal end of the guide wire and precisely direct its distal tip to the desired location.
It would be desirable to provide a system and method for navigating a guide wire that may reduce the amount of time needed to navigate past a junction point thereby reducing the overall procedure time.